Growdf

Unusual timing this year. My summer varieties has not yet produce any buds but Palora has started already. These usually produce buds on August. Hope these don't turn to a branch.

The things we do for dragons... the umbrella was for heat wave and temperature swings. Light drizzle tonight and tomorrow morning, might as well use it.

First bloom is Sugar Dragon. Comparing to last year, it took ~7 days longer from bud to bloom. Cloudy weather sure did slow things down.

Pretty sure the branch was chopped off previously. But a new branch appears on the area. Perhaps there are tiny thorns remaining or inside hiding.

This trunk got soft and mushy last year and eventually rotted. It is no longer connected to the soil but it did threw off a lot of extra roots. There are new growths so I'm crossing my fingers that it's still alive.

7 months since bloom and Palora still not fully yellow but patience has ran out 😁. Zone 10a.

It's finally turning color. These bloomed last September, looks like it will be ready by March. First fruit of 2023 or last harvest of 2022?

Palora flowers bloomed towards the end of October. 5 flowers did not open. For experiment purposes, 2 of them were left alone and 3 were manually opened to hand pollinate. Interestingly enough, those 3 that were manually opened already have pollen on the stigma. It’s been 2 weeks and all 5 of them appears to be a success and will become a fruit.

Looks like I will be staying up late tonight. Last but not least, these Palora are the last buds in my yard. Considered as fall / winter crop in California because these will be ripe early next year.

Just one hot day in Fall. Partly lazy, partly thinking that these dragon fruit can tolerate the temperature swing in combination with the heat reflecting off the wall. Looks like some branches will have to go.

Dragon Fruit at San Diego Zoo. Too bad it was on the other side of the walkway. It's flowering and some even have fruits.

There are variations in the fruits even from the same plant. A good example is these 2 very different looking fruits. The fruit on the left has shorter bright green bracts with vibrant red skin. The fruit on the right has curly long bracts with darker red color. I use mix pollen, not sure if pollen can affect the appearance of the fruit.

Dragon Fruit 4 kinds. Halley's Comet, Tricia, Israel Golden Yellow and White Sapphire.

This branch was growing toward the sky but broke on its own weight last April. Since it was still sort of attached, I just left it alone to see what will happen. That branch was able to produce a fruit 🙂

These dragon fruits will keep me happy for the next two weeks. Dark star, Tricia, Delight, White Sapphire and Halley’s Comet.

This dragon fruit's main trunk got mushy earlier this spring. I scraped off the flesh and leave it as is to observe if it's going to fruit. It did well and fruited this summer. So all is not lost if the main trunk plant gets to this stage. We'll see how it fares in winter...

Got a bunch of dragon fruits from Rancho Los Serranos. Some Lisa, Sugar Dragon, Valdivia Roja, Armando and some unknowns.

Counted over 40 buds of Edgar's Baby this year and thinned out half of it. Now I have 22 small fruits, most are around half pound. Last year when it had only 6 buds, most of them are 3/4 pounds and a few did go over 1 pound and flavorful. Oddly enough, last year Edgar's baby had deep purple flesh, this year's batch has less flavor and is much lighter in color. Looks like a totally different fruit.

Tricia first time fruiting! Almost there, not yet fully colored, still not wiggly, watching it everyday checking if the skin cracks.

The Wallace Ranch Hybrid. This is a very interesting plant because of how it was created. Perhaps the first documented dragon fruit of its kind. Is it a new variety or species? The fruit tasted great, sweet and juicy with floral scent.

Visited Wallace Ranch and got a nice haul of dragon fruits. Most of them are American beauty, physical graffiti and some interesting ones :)

Delight, Dark Star and a couple of unknowns. All of them over 1 pound :)

Time to harvest dragon fruits! Delight, Dark Star, Physical Graffiti.

Today’s harvest, 1.2lb white sapphire on the left and a 1lb unknown on the right. The unknown was wrinkly last year, I thought it’s just because it was the first year of fruiting or a one off but it looks like its a trait. The others fruits on the branch are starting to wrinkle when they haven’t fully turn red.

Not much space in here. Should I remove one of the middle buds or let nature decide what to do?

Going to pick 2 fruits today. Interesting observation, all of them are pollinated with it’s own pollen coming from the same plant, there are variations in the fruit shape. One is oval with more fins/bracts and the other is round with less bracts. They taste similar though with 16 and 17 brix.